First Love
by Neko-tama
Summary: After Raven saved Cerises secret from discovery by Kitty Cheshire they become friends, but Cerise quickly finds herself to be unsatisfied by that.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own anything of the ever after high franchise and if I did at least half of the characters would be gay.

As Kitty ran away due to the spell Raven cast on her the magically talented queen to be leaned towards Cerice.  
"How about we hang out together?"  
"Sure. Do you have anything in mind?" She was thrilled to do something with a friend since she was alone most of the time. Hiding a secret and being shy were two things that made lonely.

They sat on the floor wearing their pyjamas and...  
"Sooo.. What do we do now?", Cerise was much less thrilled about "doing something with a friend" if that only involved staring at the ground while wearing pyjamas. "Two girls pajama party" had sounded somewhat more exciting and somewhat less awkward.  
"I don't know." Raven shrugged cluelessly. "Tea?" She conjured up an entire tea set out of thin air, filled with steaming earl grey and with sugar, milk and cream abundantly available.  
"Perfect! I love it!" Cerice clapped her hands enthusiastically and emptied her cup within a heartbeat.  
Raven leaned slightly towards her. "So I was wondering. When you are the big bad wolf and little red riding hood at the same time how are you ever going to fulfill your destiny? You can hardly eat yourself up, right?"  
"I guess that could be a problem. I don't care about that old story anyway. I mean my parents went off the books. Why should I even attempt not to follow their example?" She rolled her eyes and went on to sip a second cup of really hot tea away like it was water. Raven felt the heat burning in her insides just by watching.  
What she said however, did leave an impression on her. Did her words mean that everybody was free to do whatever they wanted and that the whole destiny thing was nothing but hot air? It certainly looked like it.  
"I am so glad I could fnally tell somebody about..." she pointed at her wolf ears. "This." She took Ravens hand and looked her in the eyes. "Thank you Raven. I really needed this."  
"It goes without saying. We are friends after all aren't we?"  
Cerise nodded slowly and ended the awkward silence that followed by drinking up another few cups faster than it could possibly be healthy.  
Some time went by and eventually Raven fell asleep while sitting on the ground with her back leaning on her bed. It was at this time that Cerise really looked at her for the first time and realized how pretty Raven was. Now that her hair was an absolute mess and her mouth was opened in a sort of goofy looking way the big bad wolf in the shy little girl awoke and it wanted this sleeping beauty.  
Cerise figured that her eyes had probably switched colours by now, since there was nothing she could do to stop herself from slowly moving towards Raven. Her eyes came closer and closer to hers until she could feel Ravens breath on her skin. She smelled tasty and her body heat caused Cerise to growl silently. Her hand was just about to touch Ravens cheek when suddenly a noise broke the magic of the moment. The door. Apple!  
Cerise jumped back in a normal sitting position and put her hood over her head. Her muscles were as tense as they could be. _What are you doing?! She is your friend! And a girl!  
_"Oh hey Cerise! I was at one of Briars parties. It was totally awesome, such a shame you missed it." Apple landed on her bed and fell asleep right away. Very convenient.  
The little wolf girl picked the little witch up, put her on her bed and her blanket on top of her.  
"Good night Raven." She whispered and left for her room.

The weeks that followed were just terrible for her. She only had to see Raven from afar to get into a fistfight with her self control and as if that was not enough, of course Raven had to start a small rebellion against the traditional ways and thereby free her from the pinch of societal expectations and her very existence that she had been stuck in. Raven managed not only to get the wolf inside Cerise to fall for her, but also her human side.  
For a while she was caught up in this terrible spiral of wanting to be close to the one she had a crush on and the certainty that she would eat her up in a not so bloody way if she actually tried to get close to her and it drove her absolutely mad! Of course the emotional roller coaster got a little better eventually and she was able to talk to her for a few minutes a day, which was a massive improvement as far as she was concerned.  
Cerise thought about just telling Raven how she felt, but the fear of not only being rejected, but also loosing Raven as a friend always held her back.  
"I have to go. See you Raven!" And with that she was gone again. _Did I do something wrong?_ Ever since their little tea party Cerise acted in strange ways. The first two weeks she ran away whenever she saw her and after she finally started talking to her again, she always pretended to be in a hurry and was tensed up as a guitar string. _Did I cast a spell on her while I was sleeping or something?  
_Raven was really bothered by this as she liked Cerice and the fact that she was avoiding her for unknown reasons did not help with being a good friend to her. Not to mention she missed talking to her.  
She opened her locker and found a note in it concerning a holiday called true hearts day and an associated secret party as well as time and place of said party.

The moment Cerise caught one of the heart blossoms the fairies dropped she knew what she had to do. A few moments later she found whom she was looking for and prepared herself. Never before has she been this nervous an anxious about anything and never before has she had such an urge to quit everything and run, but she mustered her courage took a deep breath and went in the direction of who she thought would make her heart shatter into a thousand pieces.  
"Raven?"  
She turned around and found Cerise standing there with a face as red as her hood. "Hey Cerise. Are you alright? You don't look so good."  
"Raven, I..." Cerise exhaled audibly and held a heart blossom up towards her. "I want you to have this, because I..." She closed her eyes "Because I am in love with you!"  
_Because I am in love with you!_ The words echoed inside Ravens head even after Cerise had turned around and ran. She starred at the heart blossom in her hand and was completely stunned. She did not even know what to think at this moment. The last weeks she has been worried Cerise would hate her and now this!  
"I don't even know if I like girls that way!" she shouted in her confusion and got the slightly weirded out glares of the surrounding crowd. _I need some fresh air!  
_

"Are you two fighting again?" Maddie giggled and sipped on her tea after she noticed that Cerise ran away before they even met again.  
"No, we're not fighting.", Raven sighted an continued with misery in her voice. "What should I do Maddie."  
"You can only get to the top of a mountain... When you climb it!" Maddie told her giggling with excitement as she usually did.  
"So... What now?"  
"Talk to her silly! What else?" She thought about something for a second: "Tea?"

"What should I do dad? I just want to disappear." Cerise mumbled from between her arms, where her face was buried. The evening of true hearts day she had spent crying and all the time ever since she spent cursing her own stupidity. How could she have been so dumb?  
"Is it about Raven?"  
Her head was in position to stare at him faster than anyone could look. "How do you..."  
He laughed in a calmand understanding way. "You are as easy to read a book." He put a hand on her head and moved it slowly "Don't worry about is too much. It will be alright."  
"You don't have a problem with it?" She had been afraid he would be mad about her falling in love with a girl.  
"A problem with what? The fact that you have good taste when it comes to women? Hardly."  
Cerise hugged her father enthusiastically. He had just gotten rid of another big burden on her shoulders. "You're the best!"  
Raven was set on confronting Cerise and talk this whole thing through. She went so far as to ask the big bad wolf where she was and was slightly confused as a result after he did not just tell her, but also gave her a thumbs up and a wink for no apparent reason.  
"The forest? That is the worst description of a location ever!" She noticed after she went to the forest and remembered that it surrounded the entire school. "Great!"  
It felt like ours of walking around between the trees, when she finally heard somebody laughing. It was Cerise. She was playing with a young wolf and rolling with it on the ground. To see her carefree and happy like that made Raven smile and gave her a funny feeling in her stomach. Like something was tickling her from inside and lifting something up that weighted heavy in her chest.  
"Can I join you?" she asked and smiled awkwardly.  
Cerise tensed up immediately. Raven hated that she had that effect on her right now.  
"Ahh, sure..." She put the wolf on the ground that curiously sniffed on Raven.  
"He likes your smell." She laughed with an expression that appeared to say _Not only him though.  
_Raven sat down on a tree stump next to her. "You know, I have been thinking about what you told me that evening and I might not know what to think about it, but I don't want it to be like it is now. So let's talk about it."  
"Raven I..." Cerices eyes looked pained. "I love you. You are the kindest, bravest, smartest and most beautiful girl I know and I don't think I will ever be able to go back to seeing you as a friend. So if it is that you want me to do – Sorry, but no."  
Raven felt her face warming up and she quickly looked away.  
"I don't really know what I want." She mumbled.  
"What?" Cerise thought she heard something wrong.  
"I don't really know what I want." Raven repeated a little louder.  
Cerises face was right next to her ear within a heartbeat. "Do you want to kiss me?"  
Raven was baffled. She was so blunt all of a sudden. Her face got even warmer and she noticed that Cerisses face was also red. "I don't know."  
"Do you want to try it?"  
Raven nodded.  
Cerises hand gently turned her head to face her and to look in her beautifully shining yellow eyes, before she closed them and pressed her lips on Ravens. They were unexpectedly warm and soft and this moment gave her a peace of heart, she had never known before while at the same time igniting a new fire inside of her. Was this love?  
"How did you like it?" Cerise whispered in her ear. It was obvious that she was burning with passion, but also more tense than ever.  
Raven responded by pressing her lips on Cerises and opening her mouth to signalize that she wanted more. She heard a satisfied growl and felt how a pair of warm arms pressed her against this very special young lady.

* * *

_I hope you enjoyed it and I didn't mess up wth the language (Not a native speaker). Tell me in your reviews!_


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: As indicated by the shocking lack of LGBTQ characters in the canon I still don't own any of this.

This chapter turned out a little darker, but I hope you like it anyway.

For Cerise the world was a nice and sunny place these days and the smile on her face would not be destroyed by anything. Since she and Raven kissed everything was wonderful and everything was twice as wonderful when Raven was around and when they were alone together... No need to go into more detail on that thought. She had classes to attend after all and thinking too much of her lover would just be distracting. She sighed – as if there was a choice when it came to thinking about Raven. She was just so...

"Miss Hood? Are you listening?"

She nodded. "Of course professor Nimble."

"Then I am sure you can tell me what we were just talking about?" He asked with a fairy critical tone.

"Urg..." Cerise grimaced in the light of this inconvenient question.

"Attention please miss Hood!"

ooOOOoo

Raven was happy. Confused, but happy. The fact that she and Cerise were dating was still something she had to get used to. Not that that stopped her from loving her wholeheartedly, it was just that she had never expected to fall in love with a girl. Not to mention one that was half wolf on top of that. She just wished she could be lovey dovey with her girlfriend without hiding in the forest first.

"Somebody here is in unshakably good mood today... and yesterday... and the day before that. I have to learn the good news."

Maddie's sudden appearance surprised Raven, who now was caught up in inner conflict. She wanted to tell her about Cerise and herself, but she had promised not to. Cerise made her swear to keep the relationship a secret. She was really afraid of becoming an outcast at school. For that very same reason she was hiding her ears. Raven loved those ears. They were so cute and fluffy and...

"Raven?" Maddie snapped her fingers right in front of her face.

"Sorry, what?"

"The sight of thee puzzles me. Thine mood is brightened hextr'odinarily recently. I cannot help but wonder 'bout the cause of this brightness."

"Shakespeare-is-riddle-is?" Raven asked even more confused now.

"One ought to aspire greatness of expression on every occasion. You know. I thought I should give it a shot." She shrugged and sipped on her almost always present cup of tea.

Raven understood. Riddle-is could never be too hard to decipher. "I promissed not to tell anybody."

Maddie bursted with hexcitement "You and Cerise are dating! That's just so hat-tastic!"

Raven just stared at her. "How in..."

"You can't hide anything from your best friends." She grinned and gave Raven a cup of tea to help cope with the fact that she was totally obvious.

The witch sighed in the acknowledgement of her defeat. "I suck at hiding things. I don't think I can keep it a secret forever. I don't even think I want to."

"My tongue shall be inanimate as a corpse." Maddie promised. "And now you have somebody to talk to. Great right?"

"Yeah Maddie. Thanks." Raven was glad Maddie was so open minded. She would have been in trouble otherwise.

"What do you not want to keep a secret?" Apple asked from behind them. Did she sneak up, or where they just too busy to notice?

"Well,.. nothing." Raven responded so nervously even Apple could not possibly overlook it. "Nothing at all."

"You are a terrible liar Raven. You need to practise it more, so you can be evil enough when the time comes." She lectured her. "But fine, if you don't want to talk about it, I won't force you. We are best frenemies after all."

Raven shrugged and sighed. She would have given up an eye to see Apples stupid expression when she found out that Cerise and her were dating. This was becoming more and more frustrating.

ooOOOoo

Raven was present in their little hideout early today, because she needed to talk. She understood that Cerise wanted to avoid trouble, but for her it started to feel like she was betraying herself. She wanted to be herself. She had started a rebellion in order to do that. In order not to have to bow to others expectations anymore and yet here she was hiding who she really was.

A pair of warm hands covered her eyes. "Guess who~!" Cerise sang faintly in her ear.

"The loveliest wolf of all time?" Raven guessed with a smirk and turned around to kiss her.

"How were you doing out there today without me?" Cerise asked and wrapped her arms around the witch's waist.

Raven looked away for a moment and her expression got serious. "Yeah... About that. Maddie saw right through me. She knows."

"She won't tell anybody, right?" she asked with raised eyebrows.

"She promised me not to, but I would like to discuss the situation. I don't want to keep it a secret anymore."

Cerises eyebrows rose even higher. "I don't want everybody to know we are together. You know how people are, right?" She asked.

"I know you are afraid, but look at Ashlynn and Hunter. People took their relationship pretty well. I think you might worry for nothing."

"Hunter isn't a girl Raven! There are people who would genuinely hate both of us. Many of them."

"Let them!" Raven responded stubbornly.

"No way! I don't want everybody to hate us." She buried her face on Ravens shoulder. "Please keep it a secret."

"Hey!" Raven hugged her tightly and spoke with a gentle voice. "I get that you are scared, but this is not a sustainable situation for me, you know? I just can't keep our relationship hidden forever."

"You could help me hide my ears until now."

"That was your decision and I respect it, but this doesn't concern only you, it concerns me too and I am very concerned. Keeping such a big part of who I am a secret just feels terrible to me. That I can't kiss or even hug you properly in public feels terrible to me." Raven gesticulated helplessly.

"I am not ok with being open about it. Period!" Cerise yelled angrily and without any acceptance towards any reply other than an agreement on her position.

Raven felt rejected. Her girlfriends sharp reply had hurt her. "Are you ashamed of me? Is that it? I am not a guy so I am not good enough to present?" She asked with tears of bitterness in her eyes.

Cerises chin dropped. "How can you even think that?" She grabbed her hood, turned around and ran away.

Raven knew that she had to set things straight, but apologizing would not solve the actual problem. She would not be able to leave it be and Cerise would not be able to even consider a coming out. Could it be that the two of them just didn't work out together? The mere thought made her feel like her heart would be crushed between her own fingers. She had been uncertain at first, but after Cerise kissed her in the forest that doubt had been blown away like ashes by a storm. There was no way she would not be together with her, but there was also no way she would ever shut up about coming out.

ooOOOoo

Cerise was angry. Nothing like right after their fight, but still angry enough to growl at anything that moved. Stupid Raven! If she had just not brought it up, if she just had not been so stubborn, they could just lie in each others arms right now and not worry about a thing in the world. _Or if you had at least considered her position before turning her down like a total asshole, _A nagging voice in her mind told her,_ you could have a reasonable discussion right now without being worried about your relationship. _Sometimes she hated her reasonable thoughts. Especially when she had them too late.

Eventually she gave up on sitting in the woods and went back to the castle. She had to apologize to somebody.

Knowing that she had to say sorry and doing it were two different things entirely. Every time she saw Raven she remembered yelling at her and her heart dropped right down to her boots, discouraging her time and time again. Raven did not seem to want to make the first move either and so Cerise go stuck in this terrible cycle of guilt and lack of courage.

A few days later Cerise felt like a wreck. Sitting in her father's room as she sometimes did and simply dropped her head on the table.

"Somebody here has problems they probably want to talk about." The Big Bad Wolf assessed with the voice of a professional and raised an eyebrow.

"I had a fight with Raven and now we aren't talking to each other." That sounded so incredibly silly when she said it out loud.

"That appears like a problem easily fixed." He said, "Go speak with her and just like that you are talking again."

"Sounds like the best idea, right?"

"What were you fighting about anyway?"

"She wants us to be open as a couple and I overreacted." The little wolf explained.

"You want to keep it a secret?"

"Of course I do! How could we just come out?" She asked.

Her father took a wild guess: "Not hiding?"

"Funny."

"I am serious." He cleared his throat and put a hand on her shoulder "Look, I know I am no position to tell you to be open but your mother and I want you to know, that we never had any intention to force you into hiding. You make your own choices. You decide what you reveal about yourself and what you keep for yourself. We don't want you to feel like you have to keep a low profile to keep our family secret a secret. It really doesn't need to be if you don't want it to."

"Thanks dad. I'll think about it."

ooOOOoo

Raven was terribly disappointed, when she noticed that Cerise saw her and didn't come to talk to her, but stared at the ground and walked away instead. Should she go after her though? What if she wanted to break up? The witch shook her head. She wasn't ready for that. If Cerise would break up with her now – she thought - it would devastate her beyond repair.

The rest of the day and even the days after that Cerise would not talk to her. The reaction when her beloved noticed her was always the same. Staring at the ground and walking away.

"I gotta do something." She evaluated while poking her meal without any appetite.

"You do indeed. You remember the mountain?" Maddie replied with her typical euphoria.

"I know I have to climb it. But what if I get hurt in an avalanche?"

"You fear the mountain might throw you off?" Maddie asked like that was a really stupid thing to wonder about.

"Well, yeah."

"You can't stay in the same spot forever, you know. If you do, you starve, or the mountain will be gone before you know it."

"I guess you are right." She admitted more to herself than to Maddie. Next time she saw Cerise she would try to make up with her. She just hoped she could actually muster the courage to do it.

"What are you two talking about?" Apple had snuck up on them again. "Are you hiking?"

This was getting an annoying habit of hers. "No Aple. No hiking."

ooOOOoo

Cerise was agitated the entire day. She wanted to clear up the situation with Raven and she had a pretty good idea about how she would do that already.

She searched for Raven in the entire school and found her in the heavily frequented entrance hall. She was sitting there, looking like she was waiting for somebody.

Cerise blushed in the light of what she was about to do and felt her heart thumping like mad when she yelled through the entire hall "Raven!"

The noise of the conversations that usually dominated this place muted in an instant and as Cerise walked towards her surprised lover and everybody was all eyes as she removed her hood.

"Cerise, what are you..."

She put an arm around Ravens waist and a finger on her lips and signalized with a gentle "Shh!" that questions would be answered later. "I love you." She put her lips on those of her beloved and felt like the happiest person in the world when Raven returned her kiss passionately.

"I love you too." Raven whispered in reply and kissed her again while some applause and some irritated sounds arose in the background.

Cerise knew that she would have to deal with a lot of hate from now on, but at the end of the day Raven was right. It was better to stand up in the face of prejudice and be who she was, than to cower in its shadow and she was thinking she stood well there side by side with the girl she loved.


End file.
